Veteran prospector Mark Creasy appears on his way to becoming Australia’s next mining billionaire following the latest exploration success at
Sirius Resources
’ Fraser Range nickel-copper project in Western Australia.

Based on Sirius’s closing price, Mr Creasy’s 20.3 per cent stake in the company, which he earned for vending a 70 per cent interest in the Fraser Range tenements into the company in late 2010, is now worth $173.5 million.

As the majority of the stock’s value can be attributed to Fraser Range, it is reasonable to value the 30 per cent of the project that the 67-year-old prospector has retained at roughly $265 million.

Before the discovery of Nova was announced in July last year – when Mr Creasy’s stake in Sirius was worth no more than $10 million – BRW magazine estimated his fortune at $250 million.

The two deposits identified at Fraser Range already appear capable of supporting a mine and the project area holds the potential for more discoveries, which suggests that more value can be created.

But speaking to The Australian Financial Review on Wednesday, Mr Creasy said joining the ranks of the country’s billionaires was not something he gave any thought to.

“We all get allotted so many years on this planet and the only money you have is the number of heartbeats you’ve got left. You’re richest when your heart starts beating," he said.

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Mr Creasy, who shot to prominence in the 1990s when he sold the Bronzewing and Jundee gold deposits to Joseph Gutnick’s Great Central Mines for $130 million, said becoming a billionaire would change nothing in terms of how he went about his day-to-day activities.

He said he remained “flat out trying to keep his nose above the great tide of paper" that came over his desk each day in relation to his private prospecting business, which is the largest in Australia.

Mr Creasy is free-carried through to the completion of a definitive feasibility study on Fraser Range, which Sirius expects to occur by the end of the year.

At that point, he will need to decide whether to maintain his 30 per cent interest in the project by stumping up his share of development funding.

“When it comes down to ‘do I participate or don’t I’, the money not costing too much is going to be a major factor in any decision," Mr Creasy said.

Before the discovery of Bollinger, Sirius said it envisaged building a 1 million tonne a year plant at Fraser Range, which would cost about $400 million.

Managing director Mark Bennett said on Wednesday the company now had the option of looking at a bigger plant.